The Patriot Post® · In Brief: The NFLGBT Goes Woke
Las Vegas Raiders defensive end Carl Nassib came out as homosexual last week. “I just want to take a quick moment to say that I’m gay,” Nassib said on social media. “I’ve been meaning to do this for a while now, but I finally feel comfortable enough to get it off my chest.”
“I’m a pretty private person, so I hope you guys know that I’m really not doing this for attention,” he added without a hint of self-awareness. “I just think that representation and visibility are so important.” He doesn’t want attention, but he took to social media for important visibility. Got it.
Well, his outing just happened to come during “Pride Month,” and the NFL just happened to have an ad ready to go celebrating it. “Football is lesbian,” says the ad. “Football is bisexual,” “football is queer,” “football is transgender,” “football is accepting,” and “football is for everyone.”
Elle Reynolds writes at The Federalist:
If that’s really the case … then why do NFL teams only draft muscular, athletic men? Why haven’t they drafted people like Megan Rapinoe?
The common-sense answer is obvious, of course. It’s not easy to find a woman who can make an 80-yard throw, much less play defensive tackle. But if the NFL really wants to be inclusive, they should put their oh-so-exorbitant amounts of money where their virtue-signaling mouth is.
Rapinoe — the subject of an effusive documentary on HBO Max about her equal pay lawsuit that a judge has already dismissed — would be a natural fit. Identifying as queer, she’s a vocal LGBT activist who would be instantly recognized as representative of the movement.
What’s more, as the co-captain of the U.S. Women’s Soccer Team, she’s not athletically incompetent. Sure, she’s trained in the wrong kind of football, but in a world where anyone can be anything, why would that stop her?
Obviously, Reynolds’ point is a facetious one. The NFL and every other professional sports league is (or at least should be) a meritocracy. The best players get spots on the teams. That males, not females, excel at male sports is not surprising.
So why won’t the NFL draft Rapinoe? Because they care a whole lot more about keeping up fan revenue than backing up ridiculous social justice theatrics. Even their marketing executives know fans wouldn’t watch a league full of female players (at least, not for the same reasons). They follow their own ideology only with words, not actions, because putting that ideology into practice would ruin their industry, which is based on a reflection of human nature that their political ideology opposes.
Therefore, Reynolds concludes:
It’s easy for the NFL to parade 30-second videos about inclusion to a fawning Twitter audience, but don’t expect to see teams signing Rapinoe or any other person who isn’t a large and athletically talented (or at least competent) male. That kind of lying about reality would have too great a cost.